It IS possible to obtain very large discounts on office furniture by buying re-manufactured items.
Re-manufacturered furniture is usually stations that are bought in bulk originally for large jobs, such as a call center.  The stations are then usually sold off when they are no longer needed in bulk also.  Like anything else, bulk equates to savings.

At Signature Office Interiors in Abbotsford BC, we offer pre-owned re-manufactured Teknion product in the form of their T/O/S panel system.  This product in not remanufactured by an outside source.  Teknion now has their own plant where they re-skin the panels with new fabric and repaint all components that need it.  Any parts not available through this program can be ordered at the same time but will be produced brand new.  This way, there are no excuses about components not being available.

We order two workstations for our office which we are going to actually use ourselves.  Bringing customers into our showroom, I can challenge them to pick out the re-manufactured setup and they will have a very difficult time selecting.  The stations look like new!

Teknion Certified Pre-Owned Workstation